Agenda item
School Standards and Achievement Report 2017-18
The Annual School Standards and Achievement Report 2016/17 was reviewed by committee in March 2018. As part of the committee’s work programme meeting it was resolved that school standards and achievement would be reviewed again in 2018/2019. School standards and achievement are of concern to a large number of the borough’s residents, and address a corporate priority. This report covers the items requested for inclusion by the Chair of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee.
Minutes:
Councillor Agha (Lead Member for Schools, Employment and Skills) introduced the School Standards and Achievement Report 2017-18, advising that there had been improving performance across the different educational phases. Highlighting the importance of the strong partnership work between the council and Brent’s schools, Councillor Agha expressed his gratitude for the attendance at the meeting of Martine Clark (Executive Headteacher, Byron Court Primary School and Brent Teaching School Alliance), Georgina Nutton (Headteacher, Preston Park Primary School) and Rose Ashton (Headteacher, Chalkhill Primary School and Interim Executive Headteacher, Leopold Primary School). Also in attendance to address members’ queries were Gail Tolley (Strategic Director, Children and Young People), Brian Grady (Operational Director, Safeguarding Performance and Strategy) and John Galligan (Head of Setting and School Effectiveness).
Outlining the headlines of the report, John Galligan explained that the quality of education provision had continued to improve, with progress rates rising again for the 2017-18 year. For Key Stage 2 (KS2) Brent was above the national averages for the progress measure for reading, writing and mathematics. However, whilst attainment had risen at Key Stage 2, it had not increased as fast as the national and London averages and as a consequence was below both the averages for reading and writing. Brent performed very well against the national and London averages for all of the secondary headline attainment and progress measures. For the headline Progress 8 measure, Brent was the second highest out of 151 local authorities in England for the second year running.
The Chair thanked the Lead Member and officers for the report and extended particular welcome to the school partnership colleagues, inviting them to briefly outline their roles. Martine Clark advised that in September 2018 she had taken on the role of Sub-Regional Lead for North West London. This was one of five Sub-Regional leads responsible for the Teaching School Alliances (TSAs) in West London. A key element of this role was promoting partnership and collaboration between the teaching schools, which was essential to achieving improvement. Georgina Nutton advised that in addition to her role as Headteacher of Preston Park Primary School, she was an Associate Member of the Brent Teaching Schools Alliance and had worked closely with the council’s School Effectiveness Team. Rose Ashton advised that in addition to her role at Chalkhill she had taken on the role of Interim Headteacher at Leopold Primary School and had received support from the School Effectiveness Team and the Brent Teaching School Alliance.
The Chair invited questions from the committee. Members subsequently questioned why some Brent schools were underperforming, what factors contributed to underperformance, and what the role of the local authority was in addressing these. The committee sought details of the particular challenges experienced by primary schools in Brent, the actions put in place to address these and how progress against these were measured. Specific comment was sought on what was being done to support improvement in attainment for reading and writing at primary schools and it was queried whether issues with underperformance tended to be experienced by the same schools’ year after year.
Members further questioned how good practice was shared with colleagues across the borough’s schools and whether the creation of additional layers of management in schools detracted funding from pupils. It was queried what measures were in place to attract the best Newly Qualified Teachers (NQT). The committee questioned what support was put in place to support and engage families with English as a Second Language (ESL) and more broadly, sought further details of parental engagement by Brent’s schools. The committee acknowledged the excellent quality of partnership working with the primary sector and invited comment on the partnership working with the secondary sector. In concluding their questioning, the committee asked for an overview of the number of vacancies in governing bodies in Brent’s schools.
In response to the queries raised John Galligan, emphasised that the attainment and progress results should be considered alongside each other. As previously stated, Brent had performed well in terms of progress measures. Many Brent schools had pupils starting at a lower attainment level for a variety of reasons including, ESL and pupil mobility/turnover. There were also a number of school specific factors that needed to be considered including turbulence in leadership/ leadership transitions and recruitment of teachers. Gail Tolley highlighted the importance of the role of governing boards of schools and therefore, the significance of recruiting effective and strong governors, noting the very successful campaign currently underway to recruit governors with strong skills-sets. Commenting on the role of the Local Authority, Gail Tolley advised that the council had a powerful influencing role but cautioned that the School Effectiveness Team was small.
Rose Ashton spoke on the importance of leadership in a school, advising that this affected every aspect of a school, from the building maintenance and kitchen standards to teaching staff and what happened in the classrooms. Often, it was not until a Headteacher left a school that this became quite so apparent and therefore, succession planning was very important to the stability of a school. Martine Clark explained that the constantly changing objectives and targets from the Department for Education (DfE) also contributed to the turbulence that could be experienced by schools. It was noted for instance that changes to requirements around NQTs had an impact on teacher quality and the level of support required by NQTs in schools.
Gail Tolley advised that school improvement plans were the responsibility of the governing boards of schools and the effectiveness of governing bodards varied. Where the Local Authority had concerns, a Rapid Improvement Group (RIG) would be instigated, whereby the council would work collaboratively with often a reconstituted governing board to raise standards in the school. This was a very effective measure. Georgina Nutton discussed her experience of working with a RIG, advising that it had been both rigorously challenging and very supportive, and had resulted in a more effective, efficient and upskilled governing body. The committee further heard that best practice was shared via partnership networks including the Brent Schools Partnership and the Brent Teaching School Alliance. Martine Clark emphasised that in 2011, 74 per cent of Brent’s schools had an Ofsted rating of good or outstanding, that figure now sat at 96 per cent. This success resulted from changes implemented by Gail Tolley and on the creation of the Brent Schools Partnership. It was not possible to achieve sustained change in isolation and the partnership working with and between schools was the key to the continued improvement of Brent’s schools. Gail Tolley emphasised that the largest number of school improvement specialists were in schools and the role of school to school support was essential. Members further heard that the Regional Schools Commissioner had recommend Brent as an example of good partnership working to improve school standards. It was confirmed that where the outcomes for children were not as strong as they should be, actions were taken to support improvement in that school and therefore, there were no schools that would consistently year after year record poor outcomes.
Addressing Members’ queries regarding supporting improvement in reading and writing in primary schools, Martine Clark advised that the DfE had appointed five Specialist Centres of Education for literacy to support teachers to change the way in which literacy was taught. The Strategic School Effectiveness Partnership Board (SSEPB), which provided strategic oversight of education provision in Brent and included representatives of all school effectiveness partners, had also agreed to create a local hub for literacy to ensure schools had access to a model for excellence in the teaching of literacy.
Martine Clark explained that there were different forms of financial support for school improvement, but noted the importance of charging for specialist input as this allowed schools to release staff to assist other schools without detriment to the school from which the resource was drawn. This was a cost effective model which enabled schools to receive bespoke input.
Rose Ashton advised that she encouraged a whole family approach in her schools, and parent engagement was key. Audits were conducted with parents to garner views on the support and activities they would like. There were many opportunities to engage parents, including encouraging parents to volunteer at the school. Family learning was an important focus and schools therefore needed to have a creative and connective curriculum to maximise such opportunities. Many schools had Parent Support Advisors, who ensured that the right support was in place, such as translators, to engage with parents.
Gail Tolley confirmed that partnership working with secondary schools in Brent was good, irrespective of the type of school and added that there was a Secondary Headteacher representative on the SSEPB. Furthermore, as the Strategic Director of Children and Young People, she had access to and visited all of the secondary schools. John Galligan advised that there had been an improvement in the number of governor vacancies listed in the report.
During the discussion, the committee requested the following information, not available at the meeting: details of the budgets set aside for supporting parental engagement to be provided to the committee with respect to Chalkhill Primary School and Leopold Primary School, if made available by the schools.
RESOLVED: that the School Standards and Achievement Report 2017-18 be noted.
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